Previous Sheffield sex offender jailed for attack on schoolboy

Ronald Temple jailed for seven years in 1981 for attacking a 14-year-old Sheffield girl.'Jailed again 31 years later for attacks on children.

Published:09:50Wednesday 04 April 2012

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A PENSIONER locked up 31 years ago for sexually assaulting a young girl in Sheffield has been jailed at the age of 83 – for a terrifying series of attacks on children.

Ronald Temple was jailed for seven years in 1981 for attacking the 14-year-old girl.

After being released from prison, he remarried and appeared to have reformed.

However, after the death of his second wife, the paedophile began to hunt down underage boys and his offending began once more.

In the latest case at Newcastle Crown Court, Temple, who has been in and out of prison since 1969 for sexual offences against boys and girls, was branded a danger to children.

The great-grandfather is beginning a six-and-a-half-year jail term for molesting a Tyneside schoolboy.

Speaking about the Sheffield offence, Penny Moreland, prosecuting, said: “Temple had been charged with sexual offences in respect of the girl who was in care.

“He went to Sheffield where she had been moved, argued with her and pulled a scarf around her neck which caused her to lose consciousness.”

Temple then sexually assaulted his victim.

The court heard the twice-married widower was first locked up in 1969 for indecently assaulting a young boy.

He was jailed again in 1981, for the Sheffield attack.

The court heard, after the death of his second wife, he began to seek out underage boys. He targeted his 15-year-old victim after giving him cash and gifts. And despite his failing health, Temple, who uses a walking stick, sexually assaulted him.

Temple admitted three counts of sexual assault.

Sentencing, Judge Brian Forster said: “This is a serious case in respect of the effect on the victim who describes his life as being shattered.

“Temple is currently assessed as posing a high risk of harm to children.”

Temple, of Bavington Drive, Fenham, Newcastle, followed the proceedings using the court’s hearing-loop system.